Sometime during the Hadean Eon, long before the formation of life as we know it, a comet fell to Earth in the most gentle manner astrophysically possible. It ended its approach at nearly the same relative velocity as the planet's own orbit, then sank into the sea of molten iron below, in which it cooked over the course of several centuries like a colossal Baked Alaska.
The hollowed interior of Comet Haluth, as it has come to be known, now defines the borders of Haluth, the state of the same name. Numerous geological processes have worked together to sculpt its cold, beautiful, horizonless landscapes. The exoskeleton of the comet has hardened into a rigidly-defined sphere firmly cemented into North America’s crust, and its entrails have decayed into a soft, gelatinous “snow” sustained by teeming populations of cryophilic bacteria. There are more than seven-hundred different varieties of this “living ice” throughout, and some scholars have pointed to this diversity as evidence that Haluth itself may be the panspermic egg from which all other life on Earth emerged.
The softer powders of this landscape serve as the foundation for the most exclusive ski resorts in the United States, and are currently reserved for the pleasure of the Illuminati. Their lights can be seen all throughout the eighty-mile diameter bowl of its lower-hemisphere, and are the only source of illumination present throughout the state's otherwise perpetual darkness. They encircle the widest meridian of the dead comet like a false zodiac, and as such, bear the names of the constellations which parallel their own positions.
Once skiers arrive at the bottom of this bizarre slalom, no matter which direction they've come from, they find themselves on the shores of Lake Haluth, where what remains of living ice accumulates after having been melted by geothermal heat. Drinking these dark waters is said to grant those who survive them visions of the end of the world, as well as of their own death, for the comet’s omens did not rot away with the rest of its corpse. As such, those who imbibe of the lake’s waters are advised to never do so alone, and to bring along their strongest cognac to share on the gondola ride back.
Comets are known to be ancestors of certain birds.
How the world ends is difficult to describe as a single event.
Haluth is not the only subterranean state.
